Alice gasps when she sees my face and reaches back to grab Richard’s arm.
“What the hell happened to your face?” Richard demands.
“It’s okay, Daddy. You should see the other girl.” V snickers from her seat, earning an elbow to the ribs.
“Ow,” she whines while rubbing her side, causing all of us to snicker.
“Seriously though. What the hell, Sage?” Richard asks right when Principal Harris walks in with Ingram and a gentleman behind him.
He looks genuinely confused when he sees Alice and Richard.
“Alice, Richard.” He nods in their direction. When he scans the room, his eyes slide over me but come right back. He goes ghostly white.
“Sage?” he murmurs.
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” I question as his eyes swing to Alice and Richard, seeming to have a silent conversation.
He looks at me. “I’m this one’s grandfather.” He points to Ingram, who’s openly glaring at me.
“I would say it's nice to see you, but I don’t like to lie.” I give him a small smile.
How could a man as sweet as Elijah be the grandfather to such a vile girl?
His lips smirk but quickly flatten out. He takes a seat next to Ingram, and everyone turns towards Principal Harris.
“It has come to my attention that since Ms. Miller’s arrival here at Brighton Academy, she has had an issue with Ms. Humphries.”
“Excuse me?” V, Tinsley, and I shout.
“That’s fucking rich,” Keaton exclaims.
“You’re wrong,” Reed tells him with a steely calm voice.
“Now, now. Calm down so we can settle this.” Principal Harris tries to placate us.
Someone knocks on the door.
“I told everyone in the office to please leave us be until our meeting was over,” Harris says out loud while looking perplexed as to why someone didn’t listen to him.
“But I didn’t,” Reed tells him while standing. He strides over to the door to reveal Sterling on the other side. “You get it?”
“Yep, all here. And I also went back and grabbed a few more clips from earlier altercations.”
“Thanks, bro.” Reed slaps his shoulder before shutting the door and coming back around to take his seat. “Please continue,” he tells Harris.
“Yes, please tell us why we’re here,” Richard deadpans.
“Ms. Miller has been acting out, and quite frankly, I’m going to have to suspend her until further notice. We do not tolerate the kind of behavior she exhibits. According to the nurse, she broke poor Ms. Humphries’s nose today.
“Why?” Elijah asks me softly with his head cocked to the side.
“Does it matter?” I reply with a raised brow.
“There is one thing I know for sure. A Covington doesn’t snap. I knew your mother and Alice. I know it takes a lot to make one lose their cool, but that’s one thing Ingram is good at,” he tells me without breaking eye contact.
“I’m not a Covington. My last name is Miller, and according to Principal Harris, I’m beneath all of you.”
Reed reaches over and squeezes my thigh in support under the table.
“How about we get a few facts straight, Harris, shall we?” he asks Keaton while sliding a USB stick across the table to him. Keaton snatches it off the table and heads to the mounted flat-screen TV.
“My pleasure,” Keaton tells him with a devious grin.
He plugs the USB stick into the TV, and security footage from the hall starts to play, sound and all.
You can clearly make out every horrid word Ingram tossed my way. How she pulled my hair like a little bitch and yet I didn’t do anything. Not until she broke the skin around my chin with her nails and visibly spit in my face. Alice gasps, and Richard has his fists flexing on top of the table. Principal Harris looks a little chagrined while Elijah takes it all in. When I spring into action, Richard tries to cover his chuckle with a cough, Alice looks like a proud momma bear, and Elijah’s trying not to smile.
“Clearly this is one time. I have reports from Ms. Humphries of other altercations,” Principal Harris tries to backtrack and save face.
“Is it though?” V asks ominously.
“Harris, you really shouldn’t be trying to save Ingram just because you’re sleeping with my daughter-in-law. Take it from me, they’re both vultures and only using you because it's convenient,” Elijah tells him while staring at his granddaughter.
Harris sputters and tries to protest, but Alice raises her hand to stop him, then turns and looks at Elijah.
“This has to stop,” she tells him softly.
“It does.” He nods towards her and Richard. “Ingram’s the one who needs to be suspended. And don’t worry. I’ll be the one dishing out the discipline. Sage, if you would like to go ahead and press charges, we won't fight you on it.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re taking that peasant’s side?” Ingram roars.
“Bite your tongue, Ingram,” Elijah snaps. “I’m over your behavior. One more wrong move gets back to me and I take it all away.”
“You can’t take anything from me.” She raises her busted nose in the air haughtily.
“I can and I will. It’s my money, now, isn’t it? Now apologize.”
“I’m sorry,” she mutters while looking out the window.
“Because that was believable.” Keaton snickers, earning himself an elbow to the ribs from V.
“We’ll be taking both Victoria and Sage home for the day,” Alice tells Principal Harris.
“Yes, of course.”
“If anything like this happens again to either our daughter or our niece, we’ll be pulling our donations from the school,” Richard tells him coolly.
“That's not necessary,” Harris sputters.
Everyone stands and starts making their way to the door to leave.
“If you don’t mind, Alice, Richard, I would like a moment alone with Sage,” Elijah says.
They look at one another, and Richard replies, “Of course. Make it quick though.”
Everyone clears out, and Tinsley raises her brow silently asking me if I’m okay with being left alone with Mr. Humphries. I give her a slight nod, and she shuts the door silently.
Elijah walks around the table and stares out the window overlooking the school grounds and sighs before turning back to me.
“I’m sorry,” he tells me after turning back to me. He looks as if he’s aged ten years in the last few minutes.
“No apology necessary. It sounds as if you’re not the reason Ingram is the way she is.” I shrug.
“That may be. But once upon a time, our families were close. I don’t want your views on Ingram to be pushed on the rest of my family.”
“I learned a long time ago not to judge a book by its cover. It was one of those life lessons my mother pushed on me.”
“God, I’m sorry about Abi. She was a great person. I can only imagine how she was as a mother.”
“She was the best,” I tell him softly.
“You had a good life?” he asks while looking down at his hands.
“We did. We might not have been rich with money, but we were rich with love.”